David Lewis Paget

The Valley Of Maggie Grey - Poem by David Lewis Paget

I was born and bred in a valley, It was all that I ever knew, The cows grazed out in the pasture andThe cottages were few.I grew surrounded by simple folkWho toiled, and ate their fill, They had one rule that they never broke, ‘We don’t go over the hill! ’

They said, ‘Be happy with what you’ve got, A pleasant country life, One of the girls you play with hereWill grow to be your wife, We have no use for the world out thereWith its thrills, and shrill alarms, We’re all content with the life we’ve spentOn our peaceful valley farms.’

The school was simply a single room, We had no need for more, At best, the students were twenty two, At least, they numbered four, They didn’t study so very hardFor the life they lived outside, To the best of my recollection there, Nobody ever died.

The cemetery hadn’t been in useSince eighteen eighty-nine, We had no use for a doctor thereFor our health was always fine.It always seemed like a mysteryBut one that was never told, Just why in our recent historyDid no-one ever grow old?

They told me when I was twenty-oneThe story of Maggie Grey, Her headstone stood in the cemetery, The last one from her day, She’d gone as a girl to the mountain topPicked flowers for a bride, But when she staggered on down again, Something had changed, inside.

She said she’d eaten a purple fruitFrom a bush that fateful day, Whatever it was, we didn’t knowBut it changed her DNA, Of all the children she bore from thenThey all were still alive, Seven were born to her husband Ben, And then another five.

They intermarried to keep their bloodAs pure as it was fine, And everyone in the valley nowWas descended from her line, The rest of the folk had died and goneAs it was, before her day, And the very last to be buried thereWas poor old Maggie Grey.

They said that we never could leave thereJust in case our blood would spill, Or mix with the common herd out thereFor the mix would make us ill, They said we lived in a paradiseBut could never make it known, The moment the world had heard of usThey wouldn’t leave us alone.

My girlfriend, Catherine Mundy wasRebellious from the start, She said she wanted to travel, thatTo stay would break her heart.I followed her on a moonlit nightWhere she went, to work her will, And called out, ‘Catherine, please come back, We don’t go over the hill! ’

She stared at me from the mountain top, Plunged down the other side, I chased her then and I caught her, said: ‘Come back, and be my bride! ’‘I have to go or I’ll never knowAll the things in the world out there, But when I’m done, I’ll come on backTo find if you really care.’

She disappeared in the darkness, andI wandered sadly home, They sent a party to search for herBut then came back, alone.‘She’s down in that village of miners, We just hope that she holds her tongue, If she tells them the story of Maggie Grey, The valley will be undone! ’

A year went by and the soldiers cameAnd they locked us in our farms, They brought a team of physicians whoSet up in one of the barns, They tested us and injected us, Took blood on alternate days, They wouldn’t say what they expected, But they checked us with x-rays.

Catherine came back home as well, She was cuffed to an army jeep, I asked her what she had told them, itWas then she began to weep.A farmer died in the early SpringAnd his wife went to her grave, The first ones buried in paradise, In a valley too late to save!